TR4

  • Model:TR4
  • Year:1962
  • Purchase Date:2005-10-24
  • Reg:1962 TR4
  • Comm No:03501-CT
  • VIN:CT/2966L
  • Engine No:CT/985E
  • Paint Name:Signal Red
  • Mileage:79, 800
  • Location: CA
 

Purchased sight unseen as an “excellent” car from a major dealer in Missouri, USA. Turned out to have lots of plastic and pop rivets, transmission required rebuild, etc., but car also had many original parts unique to early TR4s – including a starting crank, short bubble, trunk stay. Decided to do full ground-up restoration with help from Dupont Auto Collision in Toronto, then to show it before turning it into a driver. Added overdrive, plus original factory anti-roll bar. Modelled the restoration on the TR4 road tested in the April 1962 issue of Car and Driver, including the wide whitewalls. The car was built on 10 January 1962, and delivered to Cie de Garage Monceau Sarl in Paris. Its speedo is in miles, so possibly intended for later delivery to the US. The engine is not original to the car, but had been installed in CT/836L, built on 8 November 1961, and delivered to Midwest Triumph Distributors Inc., Chicago. How the two met, I do not know. After many trials – overdrive, driveshaft, suspension, the car was (almost) completed in August, 2008, and my wife and I drove it from Toronto to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Vintage Triumph Register Convention, where the car had the honour of winning the TR4/TR4A class at the concours. On the drive back, the throttle linkage fell apart, but I fixed it temporarily with duct tape, stopped at a hardware store to buy the missing bolt, added some Loctite, and drove home. Next stop – the TRA in West Virginia, and then lots and lots of driving.
Update: we did not make it to West Virginia in 2009, but finally made it to the Triumph Register of America annual meet in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in June 2011, and the car won the concours d’elegance in the TR4/TR4A class. Next year: TRA in North Carolina, and maybe VTR again.

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Photo Galleries

Smoothline/Parrish hardtop

(22/05/2015)

Vintage Triumph Register 2008 – Ypsilanti, USA

(22/05/2015)

Restoration – body and paint – two years

(22/05/2015)

Looks original – but a sculpture in plastic

(22/05/2015)
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